The present invention relates to mixtures of strobilurin fungicides and plant growth regulators and to the application of these mixtures to crops including the foliar application of these mixtures on cotton.
Disease management in cotton has typically been managed through crop rotation, destruction of plant residue after harvest or application of fungicides in the form of seed treatments or with in-furrow applications. Foliar applications of fungicides on cotton are not currently a common agronomic practice due, in part, to the lack of fungicides registered for this use.
Plant growth regulators (PGRs) are generally any substances or mixtures of substances intended to accelerate or retard the rate of growth or maturation, or otherwise alter the development of plants or their produce. Plant growth regulators (PGRs) affect growth and differentiation of plants. More specifically, various PGRs can, for example, reduce plant height, stimulate seed germination, induce flowering, darken leaf coloring, change the rate of plant growth and modify the timing and efficiency of fruiting.
PGRs are recognized as an essential tool in modern cotton production. Mepiquat (IUPAC name: N,N-dimethylpiperidinium) is a widely accepted PGR for cotton plants and is typically applied to cotton plants in the form of a salt, such as mepiquat chloride or mepiquat pentaborate, by foliar application. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,478,796; 5,627,134; 5,650,372; 5,654,255; 5,869,424; 5,935,906; 6,224,734; 6,232,270; 6,248,694; 6,288,009; 6,376,425 and 6,465,394 teach various mepiquat formulations and their use in cotton.